an experience of blended learning 2.0

The Seventh Open Classroom Conference

Incubating Creativity and the Capacity for Innovation:

Open Content, Social Networking Tools and Creative Learning for All

15-17 October 2009Porto, Portugal

Daria Grimaldi- Stanislao Smiraglia Department of Human and Social Science

University of Cassino - Italy

http://www.eden-online.org/eden.php?menuId=468


An experience of Blended-learning 2.0 The learning construction between creativity and innovation

Grimaldi Daria - Smiraglia StanislaoDepartment of Human and Social Science


what we talk about...

Protagonists of our reflections are

cultural artefacts

“everything which represents a kind of interface with which we are in relation, from the language to the

computer. (Mantovani, 1995)”

Or better, We are going to talk about the artefact

in a 2.0 learning enviroment.

Smiraglia Stanislao - Grimaldi Daria - Department of Human and Social Science



cultural artefacts



The choice of the tools to use in a learning community is the way to define the construction

of the community itself

They can be considered the “matrix of mentality” (Debray,

1991 ) which not only changes the content, but creates social

phenomena on its own.


Learning 2.0 We decided to shift the attention towards a learning 2.0 to joining the historical and productive theories of the constructivist approach to multimedia learning



to the new technologies which strongly enhance the culture of sharing.


University B-Learning 2.0

As regards university teachings of Social Psychology (taught by Prof.Smiraglia at the Universities of Naples and Cassino) the role of technologies has been for many years central in didactic experimentation by the methodology of blended learning.

After five years of exploration of ICT potentials for University teaching, today these courses avails itself of two educational channels on line supporting and integrating face to face class

lessons: blog & e-book




University B-Learning 2.0

From a psychosocial point of view, the usability guaranteed by a graphic, really immediate interface, as those ones characterizing the 2.0, makes it possible for users to express themselves with great simplicity and create new contents, sharing them immediately with the community to which they belong and obtaining by it a feedback in a more or less simultaneous way. It is just the sense of community which has a leading role in the cognitive structure of the social networking approach.




Let’s see the Blog Within the categorization carried out by Riva (2008), as regards the instruments characterizing the web 2.0, the blog is identified as privileged example for describing the “expressive sites”, the main affordance of which is the possibility of creating and sharing its contents.



we have chosen to start remote courses with as less as possible functions, making the blog be essentially available as an instrument for studying into depth and debating the subjects dealt with in the classroom.


Blog

The blog has really got a more informal role within the identity negotiation and communication processes between students and with the teacher and the tutor, functioning as a real bridge between the classroom and the network.

According to the real meaning of “blended”, technologies perform the role of facilitating face to face didactics and offering an arena for exchanging ideas and deepening subjects which otherwise would not be well debated.






Blog

Post main articles

Sidebar

Within the user interface the blog avails itself of two areas:


Blog

To such an end each comment explicitly referring to other colleagues’ contributions or to other subjects introduced by the teacher into posts (by links to the text in question), referred to only as reflection and further investigation hints, has been considered relevant from the point of view of quality.



Students have been evalueted for their online partecipation.Have been explicitly requested them, to consciously, creatively and positively intervene into the debate, in order that each intervention could give an added value to discussion.


Blog

We have managed to conform each intervention with the following criteria:



innovation of the expressed position compared with the foregoing ones;

creativity in the use of on line resources;

relevance of the subject of the article to which the comment refers;

the formal organization of contents


Let’s see the Ebook

Scriptaweb is an e-learning system which takes place by the ‘book form’ but even more, it is a

‘community book’ because of the network of relations which are built around it, with moments of interaction and sharing of study experiences, of assessment of learning, of development of

integration tasks.




Why Ebook



1. 2.

?

The risk of learning mediated by technologies consists of the separation between contents to study and process into which to take part: we can run the risk of focusing our attention on the interaction process and practices to the detriment of the contents specific of the exam, often limited to the products specially created for online use.


Why Ebook



In a blended university course, it is not possible to sacrifice the study of the text, however, as regards traditional texts, the study of books is inevitably deferred to a later moment than that of teaching and interaction, but by the ebook by Scriptaweb, it has been possible to integrate the different needs of the didactic model of a constructivist kind taking advantage of the use of the ICT.


Why Ebook



With Scriptawebs’ tools each student can partecipates to the collaborative knowledge building, introducing in the book links, materials find in the Net or simply personal reflections.


Reflections



NOT usefull REALLY useful FAIRLY usefull

0

85.3

15.64.2

75

20.8

how much usefull are the tools? (%)

blog ebook

NO yes fairly

82.4

8.2 9.3

86.5

211.5

did you have any diffculties to familiarize with the tools?( %)

blog ebook

The joint use of the blog and ebook has allowed to stimulate each

student to intervene in the dynamics of learning, actively participating into collective

studying, without finding difficulties of familiarization with

the instrument.


Reflections

The reason why we decided to use both blog and ebook is the possibility to join the informality of user generated media with safety contents.

For these reasons, it’s impossible to turn our face to the changes of the web 2.0, at least as it is impossible to ignore the delicate role of user-generated media in the quality of cultural development, expecially in relation with learning practicies.




Reflections

The worst risk of the using web 2.0 is dilettantism, as well as sharing represents the decline of the ownership right.

As a research mentioned by Keen shows, if 77% of university students state not to consider a serious crime to copy the contents taken from the network (CAI research, Keen 2009) -whatever they are- it is evident that we find ourselves to face a problem which links the Internet, or rather its use, directly with culture. (Keen 2009)

On the other hand, since learning is a social activity, to have a medium like the Network allowing a huge socialization, can really change the nature of man and his knowledge. (Gallino 2000)

Conclusions

It is not an ideological attitude but it represents a need which is more and more urging within the world of politics and in the world of didactics, particularly in the world of university: the password is flexibility and education must take it into account in order to not deny that progress which it is the first one to help. The transformation needed does not only have an

influence on the means to be adopted, but rather shows itself as a deep alteration in the culture of developing culture.




To deepen the discussion by email:

Smiraglia Stanislao (Associate professor):

[email protected]

Grimaldi Daria (PhD student):

[email protected]

Department of Human and Social Science


Thank you!

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an experience of blended learning 2.0

Education

learning community

multimedia learning

learning construction

social environment

creative learning

learning enviroment

social phenomena

social networkingtools